Winning bid: £125

The Prince’s Trust

The Prince’s Trust is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by Charles, Prince of Wales to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11 to 30 year-olds who are unemployed and those struggling at school and at risk of exclusion. Many of the young people helped by The Trust are in or leaving care, facing issues such as homelessness or mental health problems, or have been in trouble with the law.

It runs a range of training programmes, providing practical and financial support to build young people’s confidence and motivation. Each year they work with about 60,000 young people, with three in four moving on to employment, education, volunteering or training.

In 1999, the numerous Trust charities were brought together as The Prince’s Trust and was acknowledged by The Queen at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace where she granted it a Royal Charter. The following year it devolved in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and other English regions but overall control remained in London. The Prince’s Trust fundraising and campaign events are often hosted and feature entertainers from around the world. In April 2011 the youth charity Fairbridge became part of the Trust.

The Prince’s Trust is one of the most successful funding organisations in the UK and the UK’s leading youth charity, having helped over 870,000 young people turn their lives around, created 125,000 entrepreneurs and given business support to 395,000 people in the UK.